Martin Amis wrote London Fields in 1989, and the book’s path to the big screen has been a complicated journey, to say the least. Directors like David Cronenberg and Michael Winterbottom took cracks at the script to no avail, and even when music-video helmer Mathew Cullen finally got London Fields into production with Amber Heard playing the clairvoyant temptress Nicola Six and a starry supporting cast including Billy Bob Thornton, Theo James, Cara Delevingne, and Heard’s then-husband Johnny Depp, the film was notoriously scuttled after its Toronto Film Festival press screening when Cullen moved to sue his producers for inserting unapproved footage into his edit. The next year, as Heard and Depp divorced amid claims of physical abuse, the producers sued their lead actress for $10 million, alleging that Heard had reneged on her obligations to make and complete the film they had approved. Heard countersued them in 2017, claiming that the producers had secretly employed a body double to make it seem like she had done more nudity than was stipulated in her contract.
Somewhat remarkably, given all that backstory, London Fields is now set for an August release. It’s a shorter, reedited cut than what was shown in Toronto, and Vulture has the exclusive trailer and poster for the film below.
